Potatoes are beautiful for their simplicity. But something so simple shouldn’t take an hour to cook, right? Right. Here are four ways to get your potato fix faster.

I can think of a thousand reasons why boiling potatoes is the worst. Actually, I can just think of one right now: It takes too damn long. Also, watching and waiting for water to boil is a surefire way to take the joy out of cooking.

So I spoke with the Epi Test Kitchen, and they gave me four ways to go from 0 to potato—no boiling neccessary.

Get Steamy

Steaming has all the benefits of boiling—no cooking oils, not much clean up—at a fraction of the time. Why? You're only waiting for a small amount of water to boil, not a whole pot. So the next time you’re prepping potatoes for another dish or just softening them on their own, try steaming them. Epi's Rhoda Boone recommends around 1/2 inch of water (add a few more splashes if the pot starts to dry out).

Cut Them Smaller

It seems obvious, but cutting a potato into smaller pieces leads to quicker cooking—a must if you’re skillet-frying some hash and want to keep the potatoes on the same timeline as the onions and peppers.

Rhoda suggests cutting smaller varieties like new potatoes in halves or quarters before cooking to use in salads like a green bean nicoise or dressed potato salad. Once sliced and cooked, the potatoes will absorb dressings better, making for a potato salad you can taste in every pore.

Parcook in the Microwave

You can’t count on the microwave to adequately cook a potato (trust me, I tried), but you can count on it to soften the potato, making it ready for the next step, whether that’s smashing it or finishing it in the oven.